Weddigs and such

Above, Charlotte, a reporter for a major magazine, in London for THE wedding. In the second photo, there is a faint image of Charlotte, taking the photo, in the window. Wow, good for her! Charlotte is the daughter of our fantastic web master, and I have heard about Charlotte since she was a small precocious child. A perk of friendships, sharing family news.

Dear Friends and Family,

In my slow-reading way (bathroom only), I completed a long work by Jonathan Franzen, “Robinson Crusoe and the Art of Solitude,” about the novel in general, and about the suicide of a beloved friend, as well as the solitude of being alone on a rough island for days. Having experienced the death by suicide of a dearly beloved friend, I could relate to Franzen's sorrow and anger. I was disappointed though, that among the Crusoe imitators and admirers he discussed he didn't mention the character in Wilkie Collins' novel The Moonstone who whenever he needed advice and comfort opened at random Robinson Crusoe and always found comfort and the right advice. Merwin and I listened to this novel on Talking Books, and the actor who played this character was just wonderful. I went to The New Yorker website to see if I could send an email to Franzen, but, no, only tweets! which we don't do. Sigh.

I overate on Thursday night and made myself sick. So I had to go to bed and missed Rick's arrival. Bad me. Why do I do that? Overeating has been a problem in my life forever, but when I start losing weight, I really go into high gear; when I went down below 114 the other day I pushed myself up above 117, which is a tad too much. 115 is the goal.

Merwin has had a pretty good few days. His radiation has been faster, at the speed, in fact, he was promised: 20 minutes from sign-in to exit. That helps him a lot. With Rick's assistance, he returned the art work to the wall above the new flat TV. The wall looks a lot better. The TV does not look as intrusive with Vaughan's wonderful photo of the Sinai, and the other work, an original print by Chagall, which we won as a door prize at a very ritzy affair.

Friday was a good day: I spent time with Rick in the morning, retreating to my room when I got tired, as I do after intense conversations. After he left, Laury came for a while, just for a visit, and we chatted about our Macbeth reviews. She read my BAM review and liked it. She doesn't want to read my TFANA review yet because she is writing one herself. She has a different angle than I did (I had no angle): she saw a preview performance as well as a performance after it opened and can compare the two. Also, she has heard Arin Arbus, the director, talk about the production and others (at that one-day Shakespeare conference in NY that I could not attend) and can weave that into her review. Wow, does she work hard, a very full teaching schedule and many responsibilities at her college, plus her family, plus her scholarly work. Amazing woman, and she helps to keep me going.

In the evening, we went to our synagogue for a dinner, and it was great to be greeted so warmly by many people that I know there. I lasted only 90 minutes, and had to slip out with Merwin. I went straight to bed afterward.

In between, I was working on hamletworks.org, for which there is always more to do. It is my pleasure to add to it, bit by bit. And I heard from SQ; for my “At Sea" essay, they want a few more edits plus other things, by next Tuesday! Oh my.

Love to all,
Bernice